Amit Singh gives MacFUSE ancient filesystem compatibility

Amit Singh, Google engineer and MacFUSE author, has given Mac OS X users what they've always wanted: access to numerous old UNIX-based filesystems, directly from their Macs. Well maybe not all Mac OS X users, but for those that have a need or interest, Singh has posted code for AncientFS and UnixFS, the tools that bring these files systems out of the computing stone age.

The filesystems that can be be accessed via MacFUSE due to the tireless work of Amit Singh. Image by Amit Singh.

Singh demonstrated the file systems during a "MacFUSE State of the Union 2008" talk given recently at Google. AncientFS gives access to a plethora of old UNIX-y filesystems and archive formats. Development of AncientFS led Singh to create UnixFS, a "general-purpose abstraction layer" that makes it easier to develop UNIX-style filesystem plugins. Using UnixFS, he then created UFS, System V, and Minix filesystem plug-ins.

Though not all these filesystems are necessarily out of use—some are still quite current—this opens up access to many disks and volumes that would otherwise be unreadable by a machine running Mac OS X. If you recognize any of the filesystems in the chart above, chances are you'll want to head over to the MacFUSE SVN repository and check out the code.